I've decided I'm gonna tempt fate and buy a GTX260/275 and do the step-up when the 300 series comes out. My question goes out to people who have had experience with the step-up processes of both companies.

Looking over their websites it looks like EVGA has the basic 260/216 for it's step-up (Don't want to spend the money on the 285) and as far as BFG's website it looks like you can pick just about any card and step-up.

I used to swear by BFG back in the geforce 4 days, but I've heard only good things about EVGA lately. I'm leaning BFG right now just because their step-up is 100 days, and if for whatever reason I don't get a gtx360 either for price or what not, I'll have a 275 and I'll be more satisfied with that.

I'd go XFX over both right now. After having to RMA an EVGA 780i and my 9600GT this year I'm not too fond of them right now. Can't say one way or another about BFG right now though.

Oh yea and EVGA still hasn't gotten one ELP product to someone from Nvnews. (Unless someone had one and didn't talk about it.)

As to the RMA issue, the nice thing is that EVGA employees (Sales/Support/Jakup) read these forums. If you ever have a problem, pm one of us. While I was layed off by EVGA (I was in sales), it's still the best video card company around. While I don't work there anymore, I can "get things done" due to my contacts there. The RMA's and Step Ups normally run smooth, but as with any company, there can be problems. If there ever is, just let one of us know...

Please note that not all of the employees that read these forums, post here. They just look for CS issues with EVGA...So even if you don't contact someone, make a post about it and it will get taken care of. I know for a fact that the Director of Sales reads these forums...That is pretty damn cool!

EPL? Does any other company even have EPL? It would be favoritism to move people up on the EPL list just because they are on NVNEWS. EPL goes by when people sign up for a specific product, it's not EVGA's fault if NVNEWSERS where slower than others...

Either one works, I do like how amazingly flexible BFG is with their RMA.
As for the EVGA Step up, do not know now but it used to be VERY LAME.
I mean, most users doing this are power users that want to keep with the best so usually those users get one of the super charge or pre OCed editions to make sure we do not end up with a lemon overclock yet the step up process forces us to upgrade to a plain vanilla version....simply stupid if you ask me.

My point of telling you all this... I've gotten basically the same hardware from EVERY manufacturer. Reference pcb with reference cooling... with only slightly higher than reference clocks... nothing I couldn't have done on my own anyway.

Go with whatever has a better;

BUNDLE
CUSTOMER SERVICE

That's really all I can say... Step-Up is nice but no one I know who's had an eVGA has been able to take advantage of it.

As far as customer service... I can't say much about any of the brands i've owned... all cards have been flawless and I never had any issues. In fact the 260, 6800 gt, and 7800 gtx are still being used by my roomate, sister, and a friend... that's going on 4-5 years on the 6800 GT... to really ever have to deal with custom service you'd have to be really unlucky.

Like snowmanwithahat said go with the one that offers the best bundle/price. They both have good service, both offer a Step-Up program, and both sell pretty much the same exact cards with different stickers on them. Be loyal to your wallet and not some company that could care less about you.

My point of telling you all this... I've gotten basically the same hardware from EVERY manufacturer. Reference pcb with reference cooling... with only slightly higher than reference clocks... nothing I couldn't have done on my own anyway.

Go with whatever has a better;

BUNDLE
CUSTOMER SERVICE

That's really all I can say... Step-Up is nice but no one I know who's had an eVGA has been able to take advantage of it.

As far as customer service... I can't say much about any of the brands i've owned... all cards have been flawless and I never had any issues. In fact the 260, 6800 gt, and 7800 gtx are still being used by my roomate, sister, and a friend... that's going on 4-5 years on the 6800 GT... to really ever have to deal with custom service you'd have to be really unlucky.

TLDR version... go with whichever has a cooler looking sticker

Actually you would be suprised to know that the some cards, including the GTX 260's vary from vendor to vendor. For example, most vendors use a 4 phase power solution on GTX 260, EVGA uses 6.